For this step of the process, I have spent time focusing on the courtroom itself, as well as the court-set. Through diagraming and models I am exploring what I want the courtroom to become. Abstracting hierarchy of spaces and volumes is a prominent idea I am really focusing upon right now in the process of my design.
The beginning of my design concept looked specifically at the courtroom itself and the shape that is takes on.
The development of my concept particularly looks at the shape of the volume within the courtroom. I began to develop the idea that the judge, jury, and counsel table (law) area was a more prominent feature, and therefore should be more pronounced. I did the by increasing the volume of this area. I studied different ceiling styles to link the law area and the spectator area. Such as a sloped ceiling, a stepped ceiling, and a sloped/stepped hybrid ceiling.
I then realized that the hybrid ceiling was most conducive to link the two areas but still allow for the area to feel different. I then looked at the ways of stacking these courtrooms and the shapes they begin to form. From there I have begun pushing and pulling to form more spaces, which is where I will go for next week.
The courthouse works as a machine that moves people through the judicial system in order for them to get on with their lives. Therefore, the building should be able to help facilitate that movement and not be stagnant. At the same time, there are multiple streams of movement throughout the building that work at different paces and must not intersect: the public realm is fast-paced and has destinations along the way (courtrooms) and while the private realm is also fast-paced it has it’s own set of paths and destinations depending on whether it is the judge, jury or litigant.
This design begins to look at different ways of facilitating that movement focusing on the courtroom set through sketches and models.
I began developing the courtset by examining the experience of the witness. Elevated on the stand, being scrupulously watched and heard by the jury, counselors, judge, and a crowd of specators, the witness is more than likely to experience discomfort. I wanted the form of the courtroom to allow the witness to see views out to nature, even if such views were only to the sky, to give them something soothing to look out towards if being the center of attention becomes too stressful.
I developed a form for the courtroom that would simultaneously allow the witness to view nature, focus attention towards those involved in the judicial process (judge, counselors, witness, jury), and allow daylight to enter and reflect through the space.
I then made a set of models to look at how this form of the courtroom, when repeated, could affect the form of the whole building. I discovered a duality to the form: a tall, almost imposing facade on one side, and a lower, looser, more accessible facade on the other side. This form started to express the oppositions inherent in the judicial process and the courthouse, e.g. freedom vs. law, public vs. private, liberation vs. punishment. I also noticed an opportunity for the lower side of the building to appear to emerge out of the earth, visually bringing Bryant Park over the building and symbolically making the law accessible to the public, emerging out of ‘freedom’. The following images show a series of studies using this idea of the park flowing over the courthouse, as well as ideas about intersection of public and private spaces (making the courthouse most accessible to the public).
[space + justice] 